Archive for June 30th, 2008

Hm. Apparently a four-star general and former theater commander questioned whether a former pilot’s experience in the military automatically qualified him for a leadership position. The answer, as you all know by now, was “no.”

The RNC called this an attack. Is it? Not to me. I served three years in the Army as a linguist and radio operator. Does that qualify me to be president? Not in the least. Would I be offended by someone who pointed this out? Not at all. Sen. McCain obviously does have qualifications to be president, and the fortitude he showed as a prisoner may be one of them, but flying an airplane is not.

Nonetheless, much ado followed.

Digby, as always, nails it in her reaction to the reaction, calling it “The Grand Hissy Fit Redux”:

The point of that hissy fit wasn’t to uphold the honor of General Petraeus or even the armed forces. It was shut down any criticism of the war in Iraq. That’s what today’s hissy fit against Wes Clark is all about too, with the added bonus of shutting down all criticism of John McCain’s truly embarrassing ignorance on foreign policy in general.

Really, what Clark said was entirely reasonable. The reaction was not. But then, that’s all the GOP has at this point: phony outrage. And the media, with its collective crush on the Republican nominee, is easily led down this path.